In the recent developments, Twitter India chief Manish Maheshwari has been granted temporary protection from arrest by Uttar Pradesh Police by order of the Karnataka High Court, and does not have to travel to that state for questioning in connection with a case about tweets about the assault of a Muslim man in Ghaziabad.

Twitter India’s Managing Director Manish Maheshwari had filed a writ petition in Karnataka High Court challenging the police notice under Section 41A in lieu of the earlier summon. 

The social media giant had earlier conveyed to the police that Maheshwari was available for questioning via video call but the cops sent fresh summons on Tuesday, asking the Twitter India MD to appear before it.

“Clarification given by you is inappropriate. Being the MD of Twitter in India, you are the representative of the company. Therefore, you are bound by the Indian law to cooperate in the investigation,” the notice as sent by the police

Maheshwari was expected to visit at Loni Kotwali along with his lawyer at 10.30am on Thursday 24 June.

The Ghaziabad Police is expected to quiz Maheshwari on failure to remove the controversial video which reportedly showed a Muslim man being assaulted and his beard being cut off by the accused. The man had claimed that he was forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Vande Mataram” though police ruled out the communal angle, saying the accused — both Hindus and Muslims — attacked the man after a dispute over amulets. The police will also ask about the number of complaints against the video and what action the micro-blogging platform has taken.

Twitter, news website wire.in, several journalists and Congress leaders were named in an FIR for allegedly “promoting animosity between religions” for posting and promoting the video.

Soon after the video went viral, UP police booked Twitter and some individuals for misinformation. “After seeing UP police’s clarification in the case, Twitter should have warned those people who posted wrong information and that they should verify their facts otherwise Twitter should have deleted those posts,” as told by UP’s Additional Director General of Police (Law & Order) Prashant Kumar. He said Loni in Ghaziabad is a communally very sensitive area. “A few months back, the neighbouring area of Delhi had witnessed a full-fledged riot. These tweets were an attempt to create animosity and communal tension,” Kumar said.

Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police, HC Awasthy, said the entire Loni incident had been given a spin by certain vested interests. “There was no Hindu-Muslim angle in the incident. It was a purely personal dispute. We have registered an FIR to get to the total truth of it. We will not allow such mischief to take place. This was an effort to incite communal sentiments which won’t be accepted,” the DGP was quoted saying.

Awasthy said he had asked for strong action to be taken against such mischief-mongers who had created a controversy. Kumar added that the victim make ‘tabeez’ which he sells to people and those who had assaulted him included Muslims who said they had not good results after wearing them.

“As explained in our Country Withheld Policy, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in response to a valid legal demand or when the content has been found to violate local law(s). The withholdings are limited to the specific jurisdiction/country where the content is determined to be illegal. We notify the account holder directly so they’re aware that we’ve received a legal order pertaining to the account by sending a message to the email address associated with the account(s), if available,” said Twitter in a statement.